Reading Time: 5 minutes It takes belief to get into senior management at Deere and Co. But of course, Deere focuses on belief at every level. Belief is the very essence of its marketing plan, which is to get farmers to believe that sitting at the controls in a green cab is exactly where they deserve to be. Now, […] Read more
Guide Business: The value plan
What's next for John Deere? Vice-president Luke Gakstatter talks strategy, marketing, and why he thinks you'll buy green
Chain reactions
Reading Time: 5 minutes Losing a dealership chain creates distance between manufacturer and customer. As farmers get more sophisticated, the companies are exploring new strategies to bridge that divide “Claas to open corporate dealership chain,” the headline above the brief news item said in a European farm magazine this spring. But beneath that simple announcement lay a difficult marketing […] Read more
E-Quip Blog: Agco to introduce smaller RoGator
Reading Time: 3 minutes Last year Agco announced it was “retiring” its SpraCoupe brand of sprayers, which catered to farmers who want smaller-sized application equipment. That left Agco with just its RoGator and TerraGator lines of higher-capacity machines. But with the recent announcement of the pending introduction of the RG700 RoGator, it’s clear the company still sees a market […] Read more
EQuip Blog: Every which way but loose
Reading Time: 2 minutes If the title of this week’s blog had you hoping I’d be talking about Clint Eastwood movies, I’m sorry to disappoint you. It’s just that another restoration project is getting up to speed in my workshop, and I’ve done little else lately than spend time trying to loosen very rusty bolts, nearly all of which […] Read more
Making a comeback
New Holland’s restructured management team has launched an aggressive plan to push the company back into the spotlight
Reading Time: 4 minutes New Holland is back,” Abe Hughes II, the company’s vice-president of sales and marketing for North America declared to a group of farm writers in late April at the company’s North American headquarters in Pennsylvania. It was just one sentence, but it is worth coming over 1,500 miles to hear. In a very real sense, […] Read moreIn with smart farming
So you think you know what “precision” farming means? You’re probably selling the technology short. Equipment makers around the world are set to launch tools that will let farmers do things we have never, ever been able to do before
Reading Time: 5 minutes A mere decade ago, to be on the cutting edge of precision farming meant using a GPS receiver equipped with a light bar guidance system to help you steer a straight line. That receiver relied on the standard WAAS signal with its one-metre accuracy, a technological breakthrough. Today, that equipment no longer fits into anyone’s […] Read moreSell it now
When you’ve got equipment to move, follow these rules to sell it fast and generate the best net outcome for you and your farm
Reading Time: 4 minutes We all love that new-cab smell. As great as it feels to take a new farm machine home, however, one thing is inevitable. Some day you’ll have to figure out how to get rid of it. That raises the question, how and when should you sell equipment after you retire or cease farming operations? It […] Read moreMore, More, More
Reading Time: 6 minutes CG:Why are we seeing so much new technology hit the market all at once? Jim Walker:I can only answer from our standpoint, but five years ago the company made a conscious decision to do two things. First and foremost was to assure top reliability in our existing products in the marketplace. Then, second was to […] Read more
“The Innovations Offensive”
Reading Time: 4 minutes A German-language press release issued a few weeks ago by DLG, the German Agricultural Society, captures in a single word one of this year s most astute observations about the global farm machinery market. It s the German word innovationsoffensive, which means just the same on our side of the Atlantic, and is just as […] Read more
Hitching Up
Reading Time: 4 minutes With large farms adding more employees, and more mid-size farms getting serious about hiring farm managers, the competition is on to find and hire the best of a new generation of farm employees. Now, more eyes are turning to programs such as tractor maker Versatile s sponsorship of the scale-model tractor team at the University […] Read more
A message from April Stewart, Country Guide's Associate Editor
